Perry yawned as he checked his watch again. Still no contact with the O.W.C.A. and the efforts to dig themselves out weren't going all that well. It was Harry's turn, so he wandered in the darkness until he stumbled into Annie.

She'd taken her turn digging earlier, and she seemed to be holding up fairly well, except… she was being too quiet for him to believe she was fine.

Still, when he curled up on her lap, her fingers found that spot under his bill that he liked so much, and lost some of their tension as she stroked his fur. It was dark, but they had quite a bit of room, so she shouldn't be too scared…

There wasn't much he could do about it if he was wrong.

Harry half laughed, half garbled something, and he got up to see what it was.

He climbed through the tunnel they'd made so far, and saw why Harry was so excited; they'd broken through the wall, and they just needed to climb up past the level where the floor had caved in.

He chattered down through the tunnel, and Maggie and Karen joined him in a manner of seconds. When Annie didn't, he went back in.

Using his watch as a source of light, he found her inching along the wall, fighting off another panic attack. He refused to sigh audibly, and went over to her. He found her hand, and gave it a squeeze, willing her to just breath.

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry…" a tear splattered on his bill, startling him. "I made you fight your fear, and I… I tried to do the same…"

His biggest fear was losing his family, and it always would be. What was she…

She was acting like he had that first time he'd hit the water after… the memories flooded back;Being assigned to The Villain, public enemy number one. The attempt to arrest him that had ended in the underwater river, where he'd thought he'd lost her… he could remember the panic of having that awful moment thrown back at him all too well

He could have smacked himself. While he'd been mourning her untimely death, she'd been struggling to survive, trapped underground, without even her watch for a light. It was no wonder she hated this.

—_

Perry chattered softly, and tugged on her hand. She nodded in the dark, and reached to scoop him into her arms. What she hated most about this whole situation was worrying him, but she couldn't seem to hold off these stupid panic attacks. She was going to have to work harder on getting over this handicap.

She hugged him as tightly as she dred, without squishing him. That helped a lot. She allowed herself another minute, then set him down again. "Thanks, and sorry again, Boss."

His hand immediately found hers and he tugged her over to their tunnel. There was a light at the end of it, and she wasn't so sure that was a good sign.

—_

All they had to do now was get to the surface. He could do that. Annie seemed okay so long as he stuck close to her, and Karen at least seemed to understand the importance of keeping up.

He frowned when he realized he'd just put his second in command in the same category as the feline, but he still has to face th fact she wasn't at the top of her game down here. Which left him with Maggie and Harry. Just perfect. At least he didn't seem to need to hold Annie's hand as long as there was light.

He motioned for them to be careful, and they made it to the next level without incident.

Wait, was the ground shaking again? He looked around in a panic, realizing there was no place to take cover. Thankfully, this second cave in seemed localized, almost as if it had been triggered…

A scream could be heard getting closer, and closer…

He rolled his eyes, and went to stand near where a shadow was growing. Doof landed in front of him, completing his team.

The confused man blinked at his webbed feet, then leapt up, practically glowing with joy. "You're alright! Oh, thank badness, er, I mean goodness, sorry. But I was so worried! Carl called me and told me that the test had gone wrong, and that you needed to get out of here…"

He crossed his arms.

"And now, well, I suppose now I'm just trapped down here, too. But… it seemed like a good idea at the time. I mean… we're a team, right?"

He smiled, and nodded, looking up at the hole Doof had fallen through. It had sealed up behind him, so that wasn't their best option.

He fell into step with the other's behind him, and Annie's voice was fairly normal. "Thanks for coming, Doof."

The scientist sighed dramatically. "Really? I break into a crumbling temple trap to try and help, and still with the insults?"

She sounded taken aback. "I wasn't…"

"You know, what, forget it. Maybe I deserved that one. Oh, I didn't ask… is everyone okay?"

Maggie didn't miss a beat. "We were before!"

—_

He glared at the bird, but the other's amused smiles seemed good natured enough. He looked again at Perry the platypus. He looked like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. That wasn't right. He might be in charge, but they were a team!

Huh, that floor tile felt funny under his feet. It wort of looked like… he gasped, and spun around. "AJ, look out!" He took a step forward to steer her off course, but it just ended up putting him in the right position when the floor dropped out from underneath him. He heard an alarmed chatter as he plummeted down. He hit bottom with a jarring thud, and everything went black.

Then he realized he was still conscious, it was just really dark. He sat up, making sure nothing was broken, and rubbed his neck.

Great. He'd messed up again. Now the team was going to have to spend precious minutes digging him out. Maggie was right. They'd been better off without him.

He tried climbing up, but it was no use. The walls were too smooth, and too far apart. He was stuck. After about ten minutes, the ceiling of the trap pulled away, and Perry the platypus looked over the edge with a questioning chatter.

"Yeah, I'm fine. You know, you ought to just leave me down here."

The platypus was already repelling down towards him on a rope that looked like it was made of vines.

When he got to him, he took the end of the rope, an tied it around his waist.

He sighed. The little guy couldn't even trust him not to fall. He climbed up onto his shoulders, and gave a tug on the rope.

"No, no! I can climb out. It's alright." He tried to hand over hand it, but he didn't get very far before he hung his head in defeat. "Could you pull me up, please?"

The others hoisted them the rest of the way. When they got to the top, Perry flipped neatly to the solid ground, while he tried to scramble out. He nearly fell backwards, but Perry grabbed his wrist to steady him.

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry, guys."

"For what?" AJ sort of looked like she was going to cry. "You have no idea how much I owe you right now. Thanks."

Right. He'd forgotten how he'd fallen into the trap in the first place. That made him feel a bit better. Maybe he wasn't such a goof up after all.

They all watched their footing more carefully, and the next level seemed more stable.

Unfortunately, it was also where the traps started getting worse.

Perry the platypus was doing pretty well, but he kept checking over his shoulder to make sure the rest of them were okay, too often, and since he was in front, some of the better traps bested him.

He held out his hands to catch Perry as Maggie freed him from a net trap. He started to put him down, then shook his head. "On second thought, Perry the platypus,you'd better stay up here." Perry scowled at him as he propped him up on his shoulder, but he stayed put.

Things went a lot smoother after that. After all, he'd set up so many traps, he knew the mechanics behind them quite well. They had to be getting close to the exit…

He yelped as the floor dropped out from under him again. This time, instead of falling straight down, they hit some kind of stone slide. It least it was slick. On second, thought, if it hadn't been slick, they could have just climbed back up it…

"Oops. Sorry."

Perry hopped down from his shoulder, but the glare he tried to shoot him didn't have much power behind it. He ended up shrugging.

Something about that shrug made him want to do handsprings. It was high praise coming from the little guy. Sure, he'd just messed up, but the rest of the team had sprung more traps than him, and he'd helped Perry the platypus avoid quiet a few before this, so that had to count for something.

Perry the platypus looked around, a calculating look on his face, and then he seemed to remember something horrible. It sent him into a panic, at any rate, and he tried to climb back up the slide.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa… we tried that, remember? It's not going to happen. It's fine, though. Look. There's probably a way out this way. See, this is one of those things that confuses you, and disorients you, but doesn't really trap you."

Perry pointed up the slide, the worried look still in place.

"The rest of the team? Right… well, here!" He pulled a marker from his pocket, and left an arrow on the wall. "There if they try to follow us, we'll leave them a trail. But they were so close to the exit, they'll probably just leave. Right?"

Perry stood staring up the slide for another moment, then turned, and walked down the corridor with him.

What was the big deal? The others could handle a few more traps and finding the exit, right? Perry was too worried. He'd missed something. Unless…

But unless didn't matter. Perry the platypus was upset because he was stuck here, with him, instead of with the rest of the team.

_—

A/N: I was really, honestly going to get them out of there this chapter, but it got a little long as it was. After Doof showed up, there were just so many things that could go wrong, or, as it turned out, not so wrong.

Anyway, thanks for reading!